Discovery of new biomarker for fatal prostate cancer
February 17th, 2009 Posted in prostate cancerIn a study that appears in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers from University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin confirmed their earlier findings that men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams subsequently have an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer. Now researchers have also identified an even more accurate biomarker of the fatal cancer: high levels of ionized serum calcium.
These new findings, if confirmed, suggest that men in the lower end of the normal distribution of ionized serum calcium are three times less likely than men in the upper distribution to develop fatal disease. Findings could also lead to the general reduction of over-treatment of prostate cancer.
From a scientific standpoint, this new finding helps focus research on what it is about calcium that may promote prostate cancer. On a practical level, the finding may offer some guidance to men trying to decide whether or not to seek treatment for a recent prostate cancer diagnosis.